How does increasing virtual memory compare to upgrading physical RAM? (2024)

You can't directly compare physical RAM with virtual RAM. The main purpose of upgrading RAM is to enhance overall speed, and physical RAM is much faster compared to virtual RAM. Therefore, if you can afford it, upgrading physical RAM is the optimal choice.

Upgrading physical RAM help your system run faster especially when you are multitasking and have alot of applications running on the system compare to virtual memory

In my experience, increasing virtual memory is handy in cases where physical memory upgrades are very limited (hardware or budget limitations,) or the user has multiple memory hungry spreadsheets and the OS keeps running out of physical memory. The best answer is to increase the physical memory wherever possible coupled with the fastest NVME, so even if you use virtual memory the performance trade off is negligible. But really the best answer comes down to what the client wants to spend money on or not and adjusting the solution appropriately.

In most cases increasing virtual memory relies on system disk space as adding RAM additionally but upgrading physical RAM directly adds to faster memory to the system, helping in its performance

Increasing virtual memory and upgrading physical RAM serve similar purposes, but they operate differently:Increasing Virtual Memory: Virtual memory is a portion of the hard drive that the operating system uses as additional RAM. When physical RAM (Random Access Memory) is full, the OS swaps data between RAM and the hard drive. Increasing virtual memory can help when the system runs out of physical RAM, but it's slower since the hard drive is slower than RAM.Upgrading Physical RAM: Adding more physical RAM directly increases the amount of data the computer can process at once. This is faster than virtual memory because accessing data from RAM is quicker than from the hard drive.

Think of virtual memory as an extension of your computer's physical memory. It steps in when your RAM is overwhelmed, allowing your system to keep running smoothly by temporarily offloading data onto your hard drive. While this keeps your system operational, accessing data from the hard drive is slower than from RAM, so it's akin to tapping into a slower reservoir. Striking a balance between utilizing virtual memory and optimizing RAM usage is crucial for maintaining overall system performance.

A excessiva dependência da memória virtual pode danificar a performance do sistema, principalmente em computadores que executam tarefas que exigem muita memória. Mesmo que a memória virtual seja útil como alternativa temporária quando a RAM física não é suficiente, o uso frequente dela pode causar uma queda considerável no desempenho, uma vez que os discos rígidos são muito mais lentos do que a RAM.

Translated

We can't rely on virtual memory because SSDs or any permanent storage devices are significantly slower compared to real RAM. So it's better to consider real memory.

Virtual RAM is just a Windows band aid to keep your computer running until you can free up some physical RAM space. Diving into the virtual RAM will mean your computer will slow down, but it beats the computer crashing on you.

On a system using SSD (solid-state drive), however, virtual disk performance is very responsive because there is no electromechanical device to contend with. It will still be a little bit slower than having extra real RAM due to software overhead to maintain the pagefile.

Increasing virtual memory by allocating more of your hard drive to act as RAM can indeed provide a short-term solution for managing multitasking when physical RAM is low. However, it's important to note that this approach isn't as effective as upgrading your actual RAM. Hard drives are significantly slower than RAM, so while virtual memory can help alleviate immediate memory constraints, it can't match the performance improvements of a RAM upgrade in the long run. Therefore, while virtual memory can be useful in certain situations, it's generally better to prioritize upgrading your physical RAM for optimal system performance.

A possibilidade de expandir a memória virtual pode parecer atrativa como uma alternativa rápida para suprir a escassez de memória RAM física, no entanto, é importante agir com prudência. Ainda que seja viável aumentar a memória virtual ao alterar as configurações do sistema para reservar mais espaço no disco rígido, isso frequentemente não é tão eficiente quanto a expansão direta da RAM física.

Translated

If using Linux (which is what I use and for those new to it used to Windows, this may be helpful) this will require either the modification of the swap partition to be larger (coinciding with shrinking one of the other partitions most likely) using a GUI tool such as `GParted` or terminal application like `sfdisk` on a Live USB (most of the time, you cannot modify a mounted drive which if the swap shares the same drive as root, means not while your OS is running) or increasing the size of the swapfile or ZRAM. There is also a kernel setting to increase the likelihood of using the swap, but don't mess with that until you know exactly what you are doing for your own sake please.

The virtual memory is increased by accessing the system settings and then adjusting the virtual memory setting. Access the System Properties settings.

Installing additional physical RAM is indeed a more permanent solution for enhancing computer performance. Unlike virtual memory, which relies on slower hard drives, physical RAM operates at much higher speeds, resulting in faster data access and improved multitasking capabilities without the performance drawbacks of virtual memory.

la memoria virtual puede ayudar a la computadora a manejar temporalmente situaciones en las que se queda sin RAM física pero puedee ralentizar el rendimiento. La actualización de la RAM física mejora el rendimiento de manera directa.

Translated

Physical RAM is the better option, but of course comes with a price tag in comparison to virtual memory. Although the cap on physical memory on a desktop/server and especially laptops is limited - having more is always better.

This is only possible if there are slots allowing for RAM replacement on the motherboard (many newer laptops lack this, supposedly for purposes of making the system lighter) and the motherboard+processor is not at its maximum RAM capacity already (pretty rare that this would be the case unless you are working with someone's old gaming rig). You need to insure your replacements are the same pin number as the originals (DDR4 vs. DDR5 presently) and if you buy higher frequency than the motherboard will recognize, you will only get up to the clock speed recognized by the board. So best to look up your motherboard and all the RAM related jazz before making a purchase.

Increasing virtual memory can be a temporary fix for managing multitasking when physical RAM is low, but it's not as effective as upgrading actual RAM. Physical RAM operates at much higher speeds, offering faster data access and improved multitasking without the performance drawbacks of virtual memory. So, while virtual memory can prevent system crashes, upgrading physical RAM provides a more significant performance boost.

If there is no possibility of upgrading the physical memory at the moment, we can use the memory to improve the momentary capacity until it is feasible to carry out the physical upgrade itself, always taking into account that the performance will not be the same but similar.

Virtual memory optimization, widely used to improve performance in conjunction with the release of virtual processors;If there is no possibility of upgrading the physical memory at the moment, we can use the memory to improve the momentary capacity until it is feasible to carry out the physical upgrade itself, always taking into account that the performance will not be the same but similar.

In the older days most of the laptops has replaceable RAM slots which is rare in these days. So when you consider a laptop in 2024 it's better to buy 16GB version especially if the memory is soldered.